Titled: Poor in Spirit…

One of my favorite pictures from my friend in Mozambique… Jim Taylor http://www.facebook.com/jim.taylor1

“Nicholas left only minutes before the police arrived to break up the God Spot.”~archie

So i worked a full 10 hour day and headed home in my faithful '96 Jetta.  Cora and I have had it since it was new.  It has been incredibly trustworthy.  

Today, i decided to swing by the bank and cash a check that i was given quite unexpectedly.  Cora was out of town, so i thought it might be good to have some cash in my pocket.  I mention this because it put me on the service road, instead of the highway.  As i pulled away from the bank and gained speed on the service road, my Jetta died.  It just immediately stopped running.  I had enough speed to coast into a gas station.  

I parked it out of the way and confirmed it was not going to start.  Making the best of what could have been really frustrating, i went inside and bought cashew peanuts with a pop to wash them down.  I knew i'd be there a while and it sounded like a reasonable dinner.

As God would have it, there was a picnic table out front and i parked myself while enjoying the refreshment.  I said, "Well God, here i am?  What's your plan? Who will you send my way for a chat?"  Within minutes, homeless Nicholas Guest walked up and asked if he could sit with me and chat a while.  I said, "Sure" and he proceeded to sit, put down his homeless sign and tell me his story.

As stories go, his was interesting enough and likely the story of many Viet Nam veterans.  Alcohol is his best friend and keeps him mellow to deal with the day.  I told Nicholas about God Spots and he was taking part in one.  You know… a God Spot is when God periodically authenticates His presence and i get to blog about it.  The thought excited him and we chatted about God.

It turns out he and i know the same God.  It is a God that loves us just like we are.  There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more or any less.  It is a God that we were instantly in common agreement about.  He knew his God loved him and wanted him to improve his life and he was working on it.  I said i thought that would be good. 

We chatted more and i explained God orchestrates God Spots and i wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything in our encounter.  I asked if he ever feels in danger living on the street.  He said not really.  God had assigned two angels to watch out for him and sometimes in his paranoia, he will call on a hundred angels and they come running.  He was confident about the angels… i am, too.

When you get right down to it… you and i are much like Nicholas.  We likely all have some type of addiction.  It's just that Nicholas doesn't choose to hide his.

Oh and for a PS.  Nicholas left only minutes before the police arrived to break up the God Spot.  It seems drinking beer on the premises is not permitted.

My Daddy use to always say, “Use the right tool for the right job.”

I made a Walmart run today and started to walk past a pickup truck with a flat tire.  There was an old guy there trying to get his flat tire off and it was stuck.  Texas in the summer time is not a good time to wrestle with a flat tire in the hot sun.  This guy was sweating like the proverbial pig and i thought he looked like the perfect heart attack candidate.

I stopped and asked how it was going?  He had the truck jacked up and the lug nuts off, while pulling and tugging trying to get the wheel off.  The wheel was stuck!  He had a two foot pry bar and he was prying the heck out of the rim and it was not budging.  I stepped in and gave the tire a couple good pulls and shakes.  It was not going anywhere!

Funny thing is… i had done a heart check before i stopped.  That was the smart thing to do, because if God was not in it, i sure didn't want to be out in the sun looking like this guy was.  Appreciative that God allowed me to participate in this adventure, i asked to borrow his pry bar.  I carefully inserted it in a very specific spot and applied about as much pressure as a 10 year old and the wheel popped off.  Literally, it jumped off the hub.  The guy's eyes opened wide and mouth dropped.

I looked him in the eyes and said, "God is good.  God is real good!"  Then, headed into Walmart.

You know, i think the God Spot speaks to my dad's saying, "Use the right tool for the right job."  It is said, the Word is sharper than a two edged sword.  I think there is a time when the Word can be the right tool for the right job.  Keep it handy.  You never know when you will need a two edged sword!

The Price of Salvation is likened to a Strawberry Ice Cream Sunday with Cherry on Top!

God created the universe.  I think He is big enough and powerful enough to draw people to Him.  In fact, i think He comes to the people He chooses and comes when He chooses.  

Sometimes it seems others feel a responsibility to poke and prod another poor soul along the path to find Jesus.  I don't think it works that way.  I think God knows the heart and He comes for those who have a heart for Him.

I once took a young man to the Diary Queen and bought him a nice big strawberry ice cream sundae with whip cream and a cherry on top.  I poked and prodded him into praying the sinner's prayer.  I even got him to walk down front for the whole church to see what good i did.  

Of everything the young man experienced, I think the guy enjoyed the ice cream sundae the most.  

BUGGATTI: Fastest Production Car in the World is Nothing Without Love.

You can never do enough for God. Give it up!

Paul says it like this…. "The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: "The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that's the real life." Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: "The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them." "

You have got to be kidding me!

Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don't these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.